Macy's 5th Christmas!

The Van Kooten side of my family is really fun. They are tall, Dutch eating machines. :) We used to get together the first Sunday of every month and call it "Van Kooten Sunday" and let me tell you we have perfected the food!

For Christmas this year, we had a ham dinner with the works and it was delicious! We played a bunch of fun games and got caught up with each other. A very fun bonus to VK get together's for Katie and I is that we get to see Travis, our cousin, who we love very much. This is the guy that used to take Katie and I to the movies when we were nerdy 10 and 12 year olds and he was in high school! He would ask our mom and she would say, "Of course the girls can go!" We could never believe this cool guy would want to hang out with us! He is one of my favorite people and we don't see him enough. Trav married a wonderful girl, who I really like named Kelly and they have THREE kids now: Alli, Luke and Jace, who is only 6 months older than Macy. Those three kids are marvelous. Super polite, helpful, well-behaved and funny! The best combination!

Here is Allison, Trav and Kelly's oldest.
Luke, with his Grandpa Jerry.
Alli was so good with Macy! They were fast friends.



This game is tradition. You roll dice and when you get doubles, you jump up, put on the hat and gloves and try opening the present, which is wrapped a 100 times. (It seems like at least!) This is Jessie giving it a try.
Bryce...

Alli...
My Uncle Craig...
My cousin Morgan.

My Dad's family is a little funny in that, Grandpa Dale and Grandma had 3 boys, my Dad was the youngest. When my Dad was 13, Grandma found out she was pregnant! Craig was born when Dad was 14 and he was raised kind of like an only child. His memories of my Dad are when he was visiting home from college! My Mom babysat for Craig and he would stay with Mom and Dad when Grandma and Grandpa went on vacation! So funny! Craig remembers when all of us were born and funny stories about my mom parenting HIM! I told him Macy has to eat what's in front of her on her plate and he was like, "That sounds JUST like your mom, shoving beets down my throat till I almost threw up!" :) Hahaha. He is super funny.

Anyway, Craig's daughter Morgan is 14 now and we were talking about how weird that would be if he and Jolene had another baby. He wasn't into the idea, I, on the other hand thought it sounded like a good plan. :)

My cousin Jessie brought his girlfriend Kayla. This is her second Christmas with the whole family! Kayla is fun and spunky and a good match for Jessie.

Mom is reading Macy a book called, "God Made My Body." It was a Christmas morning joke at our house. If you say it really slow, it's hilarious! Mom kept saying, "What?"

After VK Christmas, we headed over to the Hougan's to see Heidi, Andy, Luke and the triplets for GAME NIGHT!

I was changing Annie into her jammies and she pulled Macy's fancy shoes out of her diaper bag and said, "Shoe. Baby shoe." So I jokingly went to put them on, and THEY FIT! Annie has the smallest feet and hands known to man. She is tiny! She did a dance in these shoes and didn't want to take them off!